Anti-Turkey protests spread across Somalia after Dolow air strike

MOGADISHU (Somaliguardian) – Mass protests against Turkey and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan have swept through major towns in southern Somalia’s Jubaland state this week, following accusations by regional authorities that Ankara carried out an air strike that wounded a prominent Somali opposition figure, his wife and several civilians in the border town of Dolow.

Demonstrators in Afmadow, Kismayo and Dolow  all under the control of the Jubaland administration led by regional President Ahmed Madobe – burned the Turkish flag and carried images depicting Erdogan with his hands draped in blood. Placards written in Somali bore a blunt message: “We don’t want Erdogan, we don’t want Turkey.”

The protests followed a determination announced Friday by Jubaland authorities that Turkey was behind an air strike late Thursday night on the residence of former chief of the Somali Custodial Corps General Mahad Abdirahman. The opposition figure narrowly survived the strike, which left him, his wife and several civilians injured.

Jubaland authorities called for international intervention to halt what they described as escalating actions by both Turkey and the federal government of President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, which the regional administration says Ankara is backing at all costs. Jubaland also demanded the reimposition of an arms embargo on Somalia.

The protests mark a striking escalation in public anger over Turkey’s deepening military and political involvement in Somalia, while exposing a growing rupture in the perception of a country that, only a decade ago, was widely regarded across Somalia as a partner that had come to the country’s aid.

Now, some protesters are casting Turkey’s expanding role in starkly different terms, accusing Ankara of pursuing what they describe as neocolonial ambitions.

A Pattern Repeating Across Somalia’s States

Tuesday’s demonstrations were not an isolated flashpoint.

Similar protests previously erupted in parts of Somalia’s Southwest state, where residents angered by Turkish air strikes that killed civilians and their livestock also burned the Turkish flag.

Anger over Turkey’s continued involvement in Somali political disputes and its drone strikes has since spread across the country, from the south to the north, marking one of the most geographically widespread waves of anti-Turkey sentiment in Somalia’s recent history.

The reaction signals a widening confrontation over the boundaries of foreign military involvement in Somalia – and over Ankara’s increasingly prominent role in the country’s political and security affairs.

The Puntland Fishermen Killings

The unrest in Jubaland follows a separate and still-unresolved controversy in northeastern Puntland, where authorities last month accused Turkey of killing more than a dozen fishermen — all described as civilians — off the coast of the region’s Nugal area.

Turkey’s Counter-Narrative Takes Shape Online

As the protests spread, Turkish-aligned social media accounts have mounted an increasingly coordinated counter-narrative on X and other platforms, seeking to redirect blame for the unrest away from Ankara.

Those accounts have instead pointed to Israel and the United Arab Emirates as instigators, while also naming a cross-section of prominent Somali figures — Professor Abdi Ismail Samatar, the presidents of both Jubaland and Puntland, and opposition leader Abdirahman Abdishakur — as having a hand in stoking anti-Turkey sentiment.

The Turkish government itself has offered no official response.

Ankara has not commented on the mounting allegations of its meddling in Somalia’s internal politics, nor has it addressed the specific accusation that it was behind the drone strike in Dolow that triggered this week’s protests.

For Turkey, the controversy comes as its role in Somalia faces an increasingly intense public and political challenge. For Jubaland authorities and their supporters, the issue has become part of a broader confrontation over sovereignty, foreign influence and the balance of power between Somalia’s federal government and its regional administrations.

What began with a disputed strike in Dolow has therefore widened into a broader reckoning over Ankara’s place in Somalia — with the Turkish flag now being burned in streets where, not long ago, Turkey was celebrated as one of the country’s most visible international partners.

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